A MESSAGE OF THE PRESIDENT, RABBI MOSES J. GRIES, TO THE TWENTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY CONVENTION OF THE CENTRAL CONFERENCE OF AMERICAN RABBIS, AT "I DETROIT, MICH., JUNE 30, 1914. salute you in the words of the divine bard, 'Blessed is everyone who cometh in the name of God,' and may the congregations of American Israel add, 'We bless you from the house of the Lord'"-thus the founder of the Central Conference of American Rabbis welcomed its members to its first regular annual meeting. A CENTRAL CONFERENCE Twenty-five years ago, on the 9th of July, 1889, a preliminary meeting was held, and on the 10th of July the permanent organization of this Central Conference was effected, in this city of Detroit. Twenty-five years ago they were few-today we are many. Twenty-five years ago they were uncertain of the future-today we are powerful and firmly established upon the basis of permanency. The few have grown into a mighty host. Our members live and work in every state and territory of the United States of America; yes, even in Canada, beyond our northern border. Our members occupy almost every pulpit of prominence in this land. No Jewish national body in all the land is more, or perhaps equally, representative. It is truly a Central Conference. Isaac Mayer Wise, the founder of the Conference, has often been termed an organizing genius. He believed in the organization of American Israel. The Conference has demonstrated the wisdom of his vision and of his faith in the power of organization. The Rabbis of America have been united by the strong bonds of fellowship and of personal friendship. We and our congregations have profited richly by the interchange of experiences and methods, of ideas and plans for our common cause. To the Conference have been brought for discussion and consideration, by our colleagues and peers, the fruits of our study and the results of our life-labor. Conflicting opinions and judgments have been tested in the crucible of debate. Men have learned to respect opponents whose ideas and principles seemed most antagonistic. Within our body radical, liberal, conservative, and those of orthodox inclinations, have fellowshipped with one another. Perfect freedom of discussion has prevailed and the smallest minority has never been denied a hearing. The Conference claims no binding authority-it proclaims no law -but its decisions and resolutions have been generally accepted as the established rules of practice. It has influenced and guided its members and American Israel by the force. and weight of its opinions and judgments. The Central Conference of American Rabbis has lived true to the fundamental declaration expressed in the first resolution adopted at the first annual convention, viz.: "Resolved, That the proceedings of all the modern Rabbinical Conferences from that held in Braunschweig in 1844, and including all like assemblages held since, shall be taken. as a basis for the work of this Conference in an endeavor to maintain in unbroken historic succession the formulated expression of Jewish thought and life of each era”. We treasure our Jewish tradition-we love the spirit of the law. From generation to generation our teachers have carried forward our ancient tradition, and our Rabbis have developed and enlarged the interpretation and application of the law. The Conference has the right and the duty to reinterpret and to make new application of the law to the changed conditions of Israel's life in America. With word of truth and vision of prophecy, in 1890, in Cleveland, Doctor Wise proclaimed: "A new era is opening in the history of American Israel". RUSSIA AND THE BEILIS TRIAL The rejoicings of Israel are ever sobered by the consciousness of never-ceasing Jewish misery. Millions of our unfortunate brothers cry out in their affliction and struggle under the heavy burden of poverty. They groan under the yoke of oppression and wail under the lash of injustice. Relentless Russia still holds the fate of the half of all Israel -six millions of people in the hollow of her cruel hand. The mere memory of the Beilis trial fills us with horror. An innocent man was charged with murder and his life put in peril; but the indictment of "ritual murder" was leveled against Judaism and the whole people of Israel. It is difficult to fathom the terrible conspiracy and still more to comprehend the dangerous forces at work in Russia. The Russian government showed respect neither for truth nor justice, and not a spark of mercy either to Beilis or to Israel. A travesty on Justice-impossible of belief-altogether incomprehensible in the twentieth century! Mendel Beilis, the humble maker of bricks under the modern Pharaoh, by the cruel taskmaster, Nicholas, was transformed into a figure of international importance. Everywhere, save in Russia, it is known and clearly understood that there are no secret Jewish sects using blood for ritual purposes-that there are no Jewish laws or traditions, customs or practices demanding human blood-that the blood-accusation is not justified by a single passage in all Jewish literature. On trial was not Mendel Beilis, the Jew, but Judaism and the Jewish people; no, not Judaism and the Jewish people, but the Russian government and the Greek Catholic Church; no, not the Russian government and the Greek Catholic Church, but Christianity and Christian civilization, after |